Help wanted: list of analytics tools and uses

Re: Help wanted: list of analytics tools and uses

by Xavier Ochoa -
Number of replies: 0
I have added to the wiki the tools that I usually use for learning analytics, that I think are usually underrated:

R (http://www.r-project.org/):
The wonderful statistical package that let you work with huge datasets that will choke SPSS and co. Step learning curve but very rewarding at the end.

I have used it to process information about the production and reuse of learning objects and other user generated content. Processing million of datapoints is doable in a common laptop.

R is also the language that statisticians talk when they present their newest techniques. I was able to download code shared in an article published in 2007 and use it to analyze data in my research. The list of available statistical and analytical procedures is astounding. Check the CRAN repository.

R also is able to produce very professional looking research graphs.

Creating a learning analytics module would be a great project for this community.

Cytoscape (http://www.cytoscape.org):
This is a tool original developed for biology, but it is great for other uses. It let you process (very) large networks, run analytics over them and visualize them. If you have thousand of nodes and million of connections, Cytoscape will help you to visualize it and process it.